Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY

Anderson Cooper Interviews Juror B-37; Jodi Arias Trial Set for August; Royal Baby Watch; Fishermen Save Rare Whale

Aired July 17, 2013 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up this half hour, the only juror from the Zimmerman Trial that's talking. She says several of her fellow jurors changed their minds. We're going to have more of Anderson Cooper's exclusive conversation with the woman known to us only as B-37.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, the clock is ticking, everyone. But so far, no royal baby. We'll take a look at Kate's pregnancy highs and lows and tell you about the very personal Christmas gifts that she gave to some of her royal family members. That first Christmas.

But, first, Michaela has the five things you need to know for your new day.

MICHAELA PERIERA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's do that. At number one: tens of millions of Americans suffering through a third day of extreme heat and humidity. The heat wave baking a big portion of the Northeast and Midwest. It could last until the weekend.

Nsa leaker Edward Snowden could be days away from leaving his safe haven at one of Moscow's main airports. That's according to a Russian attorney working with him.

Ariel Castro, the man accused of holding three Cleveland women hostage for a decade now faces even more charges. He was indicted on 648 new charges bringing the total number of counts to a staggering 977.

EPA headquarters will be renamed the William Jefferson-Clinton Federal Building in a ceremony later today, to honor the former president's environmental legacy.

And at number five, Nelson Mandela turns 95 years old tomorrow. Getting there has been quite a battle for him. The South African icon is in critical condition on life support and getting kidney dialysis.

We're always updating our five things to know, so go to NewDayCNN.com for the very latest. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Thanks so much.

We are learning much more about what really went on behind closed doors when six women were faced with the task of deciding whether George Zimmerman was guilty or not. One of those jurors has been speaking exclusively to CNN's Anderson Cooper. She said not only did they reach the conclusion that the shooting of Trayvon Martin was justified, put that it was perfectly legal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you have any doubt that George Zimmerman feared for his life?

JUROR B-37: I had no doubt George feared for his life in the situation he was in at the time.

COOPER: When the prosecution in their closing argument is holding up the Skittles and holding up the can of iced tea and saying this is what Trayvon Martin was arm armed with. This is a a kid who had Skittles and iced tea, you felt George Zimmerman -- did you find that compelling at all, or did you find Mark O'Mara with a concrete block compelling?

JUROR B-37: Mark with a concrete block, definitely. The Skittles and the Arizona can were ridiculous to even put it up and compare the two. I mean, anybody can be armed with anything. You can bash somebody's head against a rock or tree or this concrete.

COOPER: You believe that Trayvon Martin was slamming George Zimmerman's head against the concrete without a doubt?

JUROR B-37: I believe he hit his head on the concrete. I think he was trying to slam it. I don't know how hard George's head hit on the concrete. Hit enough to get damage, bruising, swelling. I think it's -- it was definitely enough to make you fear when you're in that situation.

COOPER: The photos of George Zimmerman, the photos of his injuries, to you those -- were those something you also looked at in the jury room?

JUROR B-37: We did, we did. We did all that kind of evidence first and then we listened to all the tapes afterwards.

COOPER: And that was important to you because that also made you believe George Zimmerman was legitimate in fearing for his life?

JUROR B-37: I believed it. I believe because of his injuries.

COOPER: Can you talk about the process of the other jurors changing their minds? I mean, you talked about the first juror went from second degree murder to manslaughter and then you put out the question to the judge for manslaughter and then it was basically because of the jury's reading of the law that everybody finally decided manslaughter doesn't hold.

JUROR B-37: That's exactly why.

COOPER: Was there any holdout?

JUROR B-37: There was a holdout and probably, well, we had another vote. And then everybody voted, put it in the little tin. We had a little tin. Folded our little papers and put it in the vote and she was the last one to vote and it took probably another 30 minutes for her to decide that she could not find anything else to hold George on because you want to find him guilty of something. She wanted to find him guilty of something, but couldn't because of the law. The way the law is written. He wasn't responsible for negligible things that he had done leading up to that point.

COOPER: Did you also want to find him guilty of something?

JUROR B-37: I wanted to find him guilty of not using his senses. But you can't fault anybody. I mean, you can't charge anybody for not being -- I guess, I don't know. You can't fault him, you can't fault, you can't charge him with anything because he didn't do anything unlawful.

COOPER: You say he overreacted or maybe was too eager and made bad choices, but it wasn't against the law.

JUROR B-37: That's exactly what happened.

COOPER: You say maybe it wasn't right getting out of that car, but it wasn't against the law.

JUROR B-37: Exactly. He started the ball rolling. He could have avoided the whole situation by staying in the car. But he wanted to do good. I think he had good in his heart, he just went overboard.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Fascinating conversation.

CUOMO: It really is.

We'll turn to another courtroom drama that captured the nation's attention. Jodi Arias. She's back in court. Her lawyers are arguing she should not be eligible for the death penalty. Arias, you remember, was convicted of first degree murder back in May, accused of killing her boyfriend. CNN's Ted Rowlands has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In prison stripes, handcuffed, and shackled, Jodi Arias, the convicted murder, looked very different than Jodi Arias the defendant who for four months had a daily change of clothes, wore full makeup, and glasses. Tuesday's hearing was to find out when a new jury will decide whether Arias should get the death penalty for killing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

Arias was convicted of first degree murder for shooting Alexander in the head and stabbing nearly 30 times. During 18 days on the witness stand, Arias claimed she was a victim of abuse and couldn't remember killing her ex-boyfriend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any memory of slashing Mr. Alexander?

JODI ARIAS, CONVICTED OF MURDER: No.

ROWLANDS: The original jury found Arias guilty, but they couldn't agree on whether she should get the death penalty. Eight jurors thought she should die. The other four, including the jury foreman, voted to spare her life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What she did was horrendous, what I did was follow the law and I feel like I did exactly what I was charged to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was significant issues.

ROWLANDS: The new jury, which the judge hopes will start work in late September will only be deciding the penalty -- whether Arias should live or die. Prosecutors will present a mini version of the original case, focusing on the brutality of the murder. Defense attorney Dwane Cates thinks To keep Arias off death row, she needs to be put back on the witness stand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more they see her talk, the more they hear her talk, the more she becomes a human being and not a monster.

ROWLANDS: The next court date for Jodi Arias has been set for late August. If the next jury, like the first, can't decide what to do with her, the death penalty goes away and the trial judge would determine her jail time. Ted Rowlands, CNN Phoenix.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: All right, Ted, thanks so much.

Coming up next on NEW DAY royal baby watch 2013. We'll have the latest on Will and Kate's coming bundle of joy and we're also going to preview my primetime special --

CUOMO: What?

BOLDUAN: Yes! It's happening. They gave me primetime. Who knew "Will and Kate Plus One."

CUOMO: I'm going to let it rest. I'm letting it sink in.

Tomorrow at 10:00, it's a whale of a story tomorrow night, no, no, what is this whale doing? Shouldn't be there. Huge problem caught on camera. How an ordinary guy helped free one of the biggest creatures on earth. You will not want to miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone. We are on royal baby watch this morning. Think about it, what if you were about to have a baby and there were hundreds of people outside your hospital waiting for it to happen, millions around the world waiting for it to happen? Talk about pressure. The throng of media is already camped outside the hospital where Kate is expected to give birth any day now. CNN's Max Foster has joined in that fun, call it fun or not. We're on the great Kate wait together, Max.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: We're coping under the heat. Very hot here. It's 89 degrees Fahrenheit and the Met Office, which issues all the weather alerts has actually issued a heat wave alert. We're trying to cope with that. On the other hand, we have this baby issue, which doesn't seem to be coming our way.

I can tell you in the last couple of hours, the queen has even expressed her concern about that. She told well0wishers out on a tour today that she hopes the baby comes soon, as well, because she's got a holiday booked. So, if the queen's concerned, we should all be concerned.

Have a look how we're coping here in the sunshine. We have our loungers out, we have our umbrellas out and we have a huge amount of ladders for the photographers getting higher and higher every day. All getting along well at the moment but pretty frantic I think when Kate goes on that doorstep. Well, we're standing by -- the queen and I are standing by with you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: How many times do you get to say that in a lifetime? That's for sure. Max, thank you so much.

As we wait together, excitement for the royal baby is obviously growing by the moment. Everyone's so excited. Well, I had the opportunity to venture across the pond myself to interview family and friends of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for a CNN special "Will and Kate Plus One" airing this Thursday night at 10:00 eastern and pacific.

Take first a sneak peek because we won't run the whole thing in this hour, that's for sure, starting with a close look at the beginning of the pregnancy when joy quickly turned to worry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Engaged, married, and two years later, pregnant. And yet the royal family could not escape the worst of news in what should have been the best of times. The joy of the pregnancy was quickly eclipsed by tragedy. A nurse at this hospital killed herself after accidentally putting through a prank call that revealed private details of Kate's condition. Kate was said to be devastated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course, she was so seriously ill, very hormonal and so desperately hoping that she was going to hold on to this pregnancy. To have the trauma and tragedy of a suicide over what should have been the happiest announcement of their lives, I think, must have been truly awful.

BOLDUAN: So Kate left the hospital and soon returned, perhaps not surprisingly, to the comfort of home in Buckleberry. Christmas of that year, how was it different?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They decided they would spend Christmas with her family so she could be relaxed and put her feet up. Something that doesn't happen when you're in royal residence.

BOLDUAN: But even Christmas had its complications. When you're part of the world's most famous family, what do you get the royal who has everything? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The answer to that question is something small, preferably hand made and if you can inject a little humor into it, all the better. She bought Harry a grow-your-own girlfriend kit, which went over very well. And she took up jam making, it was something she really enjoyed doing, and so she would jar up her jam and she gave pots of preserves to the family members, which I think went down very, very well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: And you can catch much more of "Will and Kate Plus One" tomorrow night. Airs Thursday, 10:00 eastern right here on CNN.

CUOMO: When?

BOLDUAN: 10:00 eastern tomorrow night.

CUOMO: Wow.

PERIERA: What would they do if they had twins?

BOLDUAN: Whichever one comes out first would be the heir to the throne. Charles, William, baby. Boy or girl.

CUOMO: Look how you know that. You're so smart.

PEREIRA: That was awesome.

BOLDUAN: But I know about the royal baby.

CUOMO: Babies are good news. Time for good stuff and today's edition: "Paying it forward literally".

Here is the story Dan Black from the U.K., a little U.K. edition for the baby wait.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

CUOMO: He's been paralyzed since she was hit by a car almost four years ago. But there is hope. New stem cell treatments that when they became available in about five years or so maybe able to help Dan walk again. So Dan's town helped raised the money some $30,000 for the treatment. Isn't that great? That would be good stuff all of it itself, right but there's more.

Dan met little Breckin Vahn (ph), Breckin is five years old. He also can't walk from cerebral palsy. There's also hope for Breckin in the form of expensive surgery, expensive a lot of money his family didn't have. The difference, Breckin's treatment is available right now. So what did Dan do? Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN BLACK, GAVE UP FUNDS FOR HIS TREATMENT TO HELP LITTLE BOY: -- raised money for myself for treatment. There isn't any treatment available for me at the moment. There is -- Breckin can have treatment now. So I decided to donate the money onto him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: He took the money that had been raised for him and he gave it to Breckin. Since he did, hundreds of others did, too bringing Breckin closer to walking for the first time in his life. And for his efforts, Dan has been nominated for a Pride of Britain Award. He said, "I have walked in my life, Breckin never has. He should be able to walk." So he gave him the money. The treatment is more expensive. So people are chipping in.

And it's a beautiful story of somebody who is in need seeing greater need and giving.

PEREIRA: Is that a good reminder.

BOLDUAN: And that smile?

CUOMO: Dan Black, good on you. Thank you so much our brother from the U.K., a good story, we find out about these from you.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CUOMO: So let us know about the good stuff that is going on in the world and in your life so we can keep telling you good news.

Tweet us and Facebook with a hash tag NewDay and let us know.

BOLDUAN: All right from "The Good Stuff" to "The Human Factor." Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester may be struggling a bit this season, but it's nothing compared to what he faced as a rookie seven years ago.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jon Lester was a 22-year-old rookie pitcher for the Boston Red Sox when an accident on his way to Fenway Park back in 2006 changed his life.

JON LESTER, BOSTON RED SOX: You're sitting there one minute thinking, you know in my case, you know I just have some back pain and just need to get anti-inflammatories, maybe some rest or something like that to you have cancer.

GUPTA: Lester was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma. It's a rare, fast spreading yet treatable form of blood cancer that affects the lymph nodes. In 2007, just a year after his cancer diagnosis, Lester started and won game four of the World Series clinching the championship for the Red Sox. At first, Lester was reluctant to talk about his cancer.

LESTER: I just wanted to move on. To get back to -- to doing what I love to do and play baseball. GUPTA: But that changed in 2010.

LESTER: We had just had our -- our first son. I could only imagine what it would be like for him to go through something like this.

GUPTA: So Lester helped launch NVRQT. Never quit which raises awareness and money for pediatric cancer research.

LESTER: Each ball represents a child diagnosed with cancer -- over 125,000 in the last decade.

Children's cancer is a monster that we all need to bring down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Wow.

GUPTA: You know, it's amazing. A year after he was diagnosed, he is in the World Series and wins game four and clinches the championship for the Boston Red Sox and even a New York fan, I can get behind that a little bit, I think. Right I mean --

CUOMO: absolutely. I love that he's using his position to do something good like this.

GUPTA: Yes.

BOLDUAN: And when you hear Sanjay from back pain to blood cancer.

GUPTA: Right.

BOLDUAN: I mean, that's how it started for him.

GUPTA: Yes I mean actually at the top of his game.

BOLDUAN: Right.

GUPTA: Prime condition and all of that. This is the ball, by the way. Each one of these balls represents a child with pediatric cancer in this country so he's never quit on it, 125,000 of these over the last decade. But that's what they're trying to fight.

PEREIRA: Wow.

BOLDUAN: Keep fighting it.

PEREIRA: That's beautiful stuff.

BOLDUAN: That's a good story, Sanjay. Thanks so much.

GUPTA: Yes absolutely.

CUOMO: And it's helping the cause. You want to help, go to our Web site and we'll let you know how.

COMING up on NEW DAY, an incredible story you have to see to believe. Local fisherman helps free a giant whale. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All righty, everybody. We're about to get into an incredible whale rescue caught on tape but first we must go to the couch.

BOLDUAN: Ok.

CUOMO: Please. That's how good the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every day we're working to be an even better company and to keep our commitments and we made a big commitment to America. BP supports nearly 250,000 jobs here. Through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the U.S. than any other place in the world. In fact, we've invested over $55 billion here in the last five years making BP America's largest energy investor. Our commitment has never been stronger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Ok. Captain Patrick Foster and his mate, Adrian Colaprete, were off the Coast of Virginia Beach when they came across a very rare species of whale tangled in quite a bit of rope, equipment, lobster traps all this stuff. They were caught and they were able to shoot this amazing video of Adrian cutting the massive mammal free. How amazing is that video? So amazing we got to talk to Captain Pat and Adrian yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. PATRICK FOSTER, RESCUED A WHALE: We kind of patterned the whale when it was coming up and down and it was moving really slow. And so we decided, Adrian decided to go look into the water to see what was wrong.

ADRIAN COLAPRETE, RESCUED A WHALE: My intentions were really not to save the whale at that moment, but it was more to just see what was going on. As she pulled up to me and as she swam up to me and I eased off to one side of her and we came face to face where in the video you could see her eye and we're kind of side by side there. She slowed down and almost stopped swimming. And she kind of took a breath on the surface and stayed in one spot and at that moment, I knew I needed to take the opportunity that I had.

It's definitely probably one off the greater things I've done in my life especially to help an animal of that magnitude, one. And to help any animal, for that matter, but it's just, it was something that I'll never forget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: good for them. Not only save this whale, but also raise awareness to the problem that this is the main thing that kills these right whales that's getting caught in nets. After they saved the whale, she gave her flap of the tail, in appreciation, they believe. And disappeared into the depths.

BOLDUAN: Think about it. Number one, a little bit terrifying it would be to really come across such a creature of the water but then to be able to help it.

PEREIRA: We seem minuscule compared to them, and yet needed our help.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. That is good stuff.

CUOMO: That was very deep, by the way.

PEREIRA: Deep. We're going to leave it on that.

We'll be right back.

CUOMO: I like that.

PEREIRA: I'm just saying that was beautiful.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It's a story of vulnerability, also. I like it. I'm just angry I didn't think of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: I love that no matter how big that whale is, it needed our help. That's what I want you to take away.

BOLDUAN: That has to be the final thought of the day.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: Thanks for watching NEW DAY everybody. For Michaela, Kate and I, it's always a pleasure. We'll see you tomorrow morning.

"CNN NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello begins right now. Good morning, Carol.

BOLDUAN: Hey Carol.

PEREIRA: Good morning Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I don't know what you're talking about, but it sounded funny.

PEREIRA: Pay no mind.

CUOMO: It was deep, Carol. Very deep.

COSTELLO: I know. I'm sure, I'm sure it was. It has to do with the whale. Thanks, guys. Have a great day.

PEREIRA: You, too Carol.

COSTELLO: Happening now in the "NEWSROOM". Stifling heat and no water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: there is sweat on just about every inch of my body. So it's pretty gross.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Maryland sizzle and 200,000 lose water service for days.

Also, Florida --